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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Masochism revisited: reflections on masochism and its childhood antecedents.

Masochism, originally described as sexual perversion by Sacher von Masoch, was elaborated by Freud to include personality pathology, and further developed by Bieber and others. The DSM-III included sexual perversion and personality pathology as separate diagnoses, but were totally eliminated from the DSM-IV. It is the author's thesis that the masochist's self-abnegating language is diagnostic--a disguised attack expressing fear, hate, and contempt of others.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

From protomasochism to masochism. A developmental view.

A developmental view may help clarify confusions that exist regarding masochism. Following Loewenstein, I suggest that protomasochism be distinguished from masochism. Protomasochism comprises conditions prior to the oedipal period which may lead to masochism. Preoedipal precursors of masochism are organized and transformed during the oedipal stage and later. A conscious or unconscious genital sexual fantasy in which pain is an integral part may appear at that time. The demonstration of such a fantasy is essential for the definitive diagnosis of masochism. It is overdetermined and may result from a variety of dynamic configurations and genetic origins. In making those suggestions, I assume, following Freud, that erotogenic masochism is basic to all forms of masochism.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Depression, masochism, and biology.

In examining the conditions of depression and masochism, my intention has been to expand our area of study beyond psychodynamics alone. My first aim was to present what I believe are the intimately intertwined dynamics of each condition, a metaphorical double helix of depression and masochism in a matrix of narcissism. It may make clearer how either depression or masochism may present clinically in combination, at times in tandem, or manifestly as either state alone. My second, but major, aim is ecumenical: to interweave contributions from outside psychoanalysis. The neurophysiological bases and genetic determinants for most depressions are by now well-recognized. Masochism, much like depression, with which it is closely allied, may not necessarily arise out of conflict alone. I have presented brief excerpts of material, much of it still speculative, from areas of genetics, biochemistry, and ethology, to support the concept of a biological anlage for masochism. This would help explain the enormous difficulties therapists find in the path of its successful treatment. I believe Lorenz's theories on animal "bonding" suggest precursors to our concepts of masochism. I further believe our field of study has reached the point at which these and probably additional scientific disciplines can be helpful or even necessary for the further understanding of character, and for the solution of the persistent riddle of masochism, whose full understanding has continued to elude us.

Aggression↗
PubMed1975

Masochism: a clinical and theoretical overview.

This paper will review some of the theoretical and clinical features of masochism from an eclectic point of view. The topic of masochism has been taken up by authors of many perspectives because it addresses one of the anomalous, absurd, difficult-to-explain aspects of behavior for which no psychological system has an easy answer. Therefore, a wide-ranging literature on the topic of masochism is available. However, few previous reviewers have attempted to draw from a variety of disciplines and theoretical frameworks. In this review the historical development of the term and some of the psychoanalytic conceptualizations will be presented first. Since previous reviews of masochism from a strictly psychoanalytic perspective are adequate (Brenner, 1959; Eisenbud, 1967; Fenichel, 1945; Loewenstein, 1957; Panken, 1967), our discussions of masochism will be developed employing more extensively the interpersonal, social, learning theory, and biological perspectives.

Conflict, Psychological↗
PubMed1984

The multiple meanings of masochism in psychoanalytic discourse.

The term masochism was originally used in a narrow, specifically sexual sense (referring to perversions ), but has come to encompass for many analysts an exceedingly broad and variably determined range of clinical phenomena that bear no consistent relation to sexual excitement. In addition, these expanding clinical perspectives have long been entangled with Freud's shifting metapsychological constructions designed to ground masochism in instinctual theory. As a result, the term is used with little consistency and at varied levels of abstraction: loosely descriptive, dynamic, theoretical. It is not always explicit which meaning is intended or what inferences, if any, are meant to be drawn from the term. When used in its broadest sense, masochism may falsely suggest dynamic similarity between diverse phenomena, and is often ambiguous with respect to the presence or absence of underlying erotic or perverse excitement. In the clinical situation, the categorization of material as masochistic may evoke an associated set of genetic, dynamic, or theoretical ideas which may alter the perception, ordering, and interpretation of clinical data. Particularly conducive to this subtle steering process are the enduring influence of the early concept of feminine masochism and the related concept of sadistic and masochistic paired opposite component sexual instincts--a theoretical, physicalistic , linear concept incompatible with the clinical model of overdetermination and multiple function. This paper includes a review of the terminological and conceptual history of masochism, briefly touches on the parallel history of sadism , and offers some provisional definitional solutions.

Anxiety, Castration↗
PubMed1997

Masochism and the inner mother.

My understanding and treatment of patients with severe masochistic features has evolved and changed radically over the last fifteen years. My work with John and his subsequent life led me to search for new techniques and eventually to the discovery of a different way of understanding and treating these patients. I analyzed John in accord with the classical Freudian formulation of masochism. The paternal transference was central and-while a maternal transference and work with the residues of his experience with his mother were present and partially analyzed-the real power of the inner mother was not touched. It was only when I saw him years later in a near-moribund state that I realized the centrality of what we had not analyzed: the attachment to a punishing inner mother. This led me to conceptualize masochism in a new way. Of central importance in the formation of severe masochism is the relationship between an indifferent, possessive, or rejecting mother and a helpless child in the earliest years, before object constancy. This is a time when the child is unable to differentiate between self and mother. What results is a preverbal conviction that they are ungrateful or "bad" if they think, feel, or behave differently than the mother. This leads to a powerful and rigid attachment to this early mother, internalized as a punishing inner mother. This is the precursor of masochism, not a regression from the Oedipus complex. The child will tolerate physical and mental suffering to remain attached to the needed-even though pain inducing-mother. If the child is not attached, he feels helpless and fears survival. This attachment and fear is internalized and becomes unconscious as development proceeds. Eventually, what is observed in adult patients is a person who is sensitive to others, but unable to be sensitive to him/herself. Awareness of the importance and power of the attachment to the punishing inner mother enables the analyst to hear and perceive masochistic material with a shifted focus. This shifted focus naturally leads to different psychoanalytic treatment techniques throughout the analytic process. Two other cases of masochism are used to illustrate the techniques and course of their analytic processes with this "inner mother" focus. The psychoanalytic understanding of many forms of disturbance has shifted from the oedipal period to the early years in recent years. There is also a corresponding emphasis on the actual experiences with early figures, most prominently the mother. The particular dynamics I have described is part of this general trend.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Developmental antecedents of masochism: vignettes from the analysis of a 3-year-old girl.

This paper suggests that masochism be understood as an organizing concept which involves drives, defence mechanisms, superego elements, self and object representations as well as environmentally based interpersonal relationships. Vignettes from the analysis of a 3-year-old girl who presented with protomasochistic provocativeness are offered to illustrate the multiple functions served by such behaviour. The opportunity to study such developmental antecedents of masochism demonstrates that such symptoms have intrapsychic meanings even at such an early age. The role of external reality must be considered in regard to its structuring and stimulating influences on intrapsychic factors rather than regarded as the sole cause of masochism. Finally, it is important to realize that masochism has forerunners at all developmental stages rather than to try to reduce its origins to any one developmental epoch.

Child Behavior Disorders↗
PubMed1994

Normal and developmental aspects of masochism: transcultural and clinical implications.

Masochism in all its forms has challenged psychoanalytic theories of development a and treatment since Freud (1905, 1919, 1924). It might appear paradoxical to present a concept of normal masochism while masochism has been considered to be so pathological, but I have proposed this concept (Nakakuki 1982, 1984) as a part of normal mental functioning through my experience and study of "traditional" Japanese culture, which I believe contains the features of normal masochism. It is normal in that it represents Japanese adaptation to their cultural orientation and expectations.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Sado-masochism in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre: a ridge of lighted health.

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre contains a paradox of character: Jane Eyre is an assertive successful woman, who marries, after every obstacle is overcome, the man she loves; she is also a traumatised, terrorised child, who later becomes deeply involved, to the point of losing herself, with a moral sadist. In the critical literature on Jane Eyre there is controversy concerning Brontë's aims in the characterisation of her fictional autobiographer. Did Brontë's artistic control of character slip and result in Jane Eyre's irreconciliable attributes? Did she mean to give us an assertive feminine heroine and instead reveal her own castration complex in the marriage to a maimed and near-blind man? The hypothesis of this paper is that the multiple functions of masochism--adaptive, defensive and gratifying--the multiple defence mechanisms at work in masochism--denial, introjection and projection--and the special layering of masochism at each developmental level--oral, anal, and phallic--are mirrored in Brontë's characterisation. The irreducible complexity of the clinical concept of masochism finds its match in Brontë's characterisation of Jane Eyre.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

Current conceptualizations on masochism: genesis and object relations.

Masochism has become one of the most confusing and controversial clinical and diagnostic terms within the psychotherapy literature. When defined, however, as a self-defeating way of loving and individuating, masochism remains a particularly useful clinical construct. This article is designed to: (1) review the literature related to the definition, scope and relevance of masochism; (2) present a descriptive clinical overview of the masochistic personality; (3) describe and discuss the etiology of the disorder and (4) discuss masochistic object choice. Masochists' object relations are characterized by loving objects who give non-love in return in order: (1) to attain fusion with the primary object with whom they feel an impossible separation and (2) to heal a narcissistic injury by making critical and rejecting objects love and approve of them. Masochists tend to choose idealized but unloving partners with whom they behave as caretakers or self-objects. This frequently leads them into relationships with individuals who have borderline and narcissitic character structures. While borderline and narcissistic individuals initially fulfill the masochist's underlying wish for idealized symbiosis, they later recapitulate the erratic environment of the masochist's childhood.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The concept of masochism].

The terms masochism and masochistic behaviour are clinically used for acceptations extending well beyond the relatively well-defined limits of sexual perversion. If it is indeed rather unusual to see a masochist pervert identified as such among psychiatric hospital or ambulatory patients, yet you very often find in a medical record the term masochist applied to a patient without there being any question of his sexual habits. This enlargement of the concept masochism has its roots in the works of Freud who introduces, next to the masochist perversion, notions of feminine and moral masochism. The aim of this paper is to re-situate in the light of psycho-analytic theory, the specificity of the various masochistic formulas in order to render them their semiologistic value, more particularly in connection with the therapeutic indications involved.

Female↗
PubMed1978

Moral masochism.

The author questions the existence of unconscious guild and unconscious need for punishment. His thesis is that the self-destructive acts and sufferings of the moral masochist are not caused by an unconscious need for punishment, but rather by a flight from severe castration anxiety into masochistic acts. The analysis of the latent castration anxiety leads to the maturation of the superego. Clinical material from one case is used to support this thesis. Further material from the same case shows how the moral masochism of adolescence and adulthood grew out of the feminine masochism of latency. In addition, the author discusses another case of moral masochism which reviews the intricate relationship between psychic health and moral codes. The importance of the cultural atmosphere is emphasized, particularly what the moral masochist extracts from it.

Anxiety, Castration↗
PubMed1976

Masochism, the ego ideal, and the psychology of women.

Psychoanalytic advances have led to refinement and reformulation of early models of female personality development. Masochism was taken as a point of departure for a study of the psychology of women and earlier hypotheses of a masochistic and inferior female psychic structure. Masochism is a residue of unresolved infantile conflict and is neither essentially feminine nor a valuable component of mature female function and character. Though the female might be more predisposed to masochism, there is no evidence of particular female pleasure in pain. It is important to distinguish between masochistic suffering as a goal in itself, and tolerance for a discomfort or deprivation in the service of the ego or ego ideal. Initial hypotheses of a diminished female libido, ego tendencies toward arrest and rigidity, relative inability to sublimate, and a deficient superego are incomplete and obsolete theoretical propositions. The female ego and superego are different from but not inferior to the male. Female development cannot be described in a simple reductionism and overgeneralization. Femininity cannot be predominantly derived from a primary masculinity, disappointed maleness, masochistic resignation to fantasied inferiority, or compensation for fantasied castration and narcissistic injury. Castration reactions and penis envy contribute to feminine character, but penis envy is not the major determinant of femininity. Penis envy variously impedes and fosters femininity but penis envy is more closely related to the girl's bisexual masculinity. The female Oedipus complex is central to feminine development, but has significant normative roots in primary and positive feminine identifications and individuation. Contemporary contributions to the psychology of women have emphasized concepts of gender and sexual identity, body image and self-representation, psychosexual response and empathic motherliness, etc. The female superego includes an ego ideal with feminine ideals and values and regulates feminine interests. The maternal ego ideal consolidates overdetermined maternal attitudes, guides the formation and integration of maternal attitudes, and directs the developmental achievement of "the ordinary devoted mother." Conflicts between the maternal ego ideal and infanticidal impulses are ubiquitous and clinically significant. Current theoretical amendments conceptualize mature female autonomy, pride, and self-esteem. Female creativity may be exemplified in many and new forms in addition to motherhood. The capacity to sublimate and to foster sublimation in children is a prerequisite for normal motherhood. Femininity evolves under the influence of parents and culture, with unique developmental challenges and transformations, and a universal psychobiological core linked to functions and roles that should be neither idealized nor devalued.

Ego↗
PubMed1987

Developmental origins of moral masochism: a failure-to-thrive toddler's interactions with mother.

The case of a toddler diagnosed as failure to thrive with an unusual history of "accidents" illustrates the circumstances which may account for the infant's intense attachment to a sadistic love object and lead to moral masochism in adulthood. The observed behaviors of the toddler in interaction with mother show the pathological consequences of the infant's openness to influences of the social environment. He becomes attuned to his mother's wishes and performs behaviors which successfully evoke her attention and reciprocity even if these behaviors are contradictory to his survival. The mother's own experiences with unempathic and hostile parents are reflected in her attitudes and behaviors to the child. Suffering and victimization evoke her interest although she lacks the capacity for an empathic response to pain. Berliner's work on the origin of moral masochism, as well as the work of Steele on generational repetition, suggest the processes through which the infant's attachment to a sadistic mother gives rise to masochistic tendencies which may be reenacted throughout life in an effort to reproduce the affective feelings associated with mother's love and affection.

Attention↗
PubMed1993

The contribution of dream masochism to the sex ratio difference in major depression.

Twenty-five women and twenty-one men undergoing divorce had three laboratory nights of sleep on two occasions 1 year apart. On the third night, dream reports were elicited from subjects for each period of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Three groups differing on dream "masochism" were compared on personality, sex role, and social adjustment. Women "masochistic" dreamers had significantly higher scores on a scale of negative aspects of traditional feminine sex role identity than men or women without such dreams. They also showed less improvement at followup and had more need for emotional support. Dream masochism may be a continuing cognitive characteristic that contributes to the vulnerability of women to major depression.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

Some comments on masochism and the delusion of omnipotence from a developmental perspective.

This paper explores the relation of the delusion of omnipotence to masochism and suggests that this fantasy constitutes a major component of the resistance so prominent in work with masochistic patients. The connections among masochism, omnipotence, negative therapeutic reaction, and clinging to pain are discussed. The classical view has been that the failure of infantile omnipotence forces the child to turn to reality. Our experience with masochistic patients suggests that it is the real failure to achieve competent interactions with others that forces the child to turn to omnipotent solutions. The distinction is made between fantasies that enhance the real capacities of the self and those aimed at denying and transforming the pain and inadequacy of the mother-child relationship. The epigenetic transformations of omnipotent fantasies through all levels of development are described. The patient's need to protect the omnipotent fantasy is discussed in relation to resistance at each phase of analysis.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMed1995

The myth of masochism.

The personality disorder called "Masochism," which traditionally has been regarded as a preference for and pursuit of suffering is dynamically misconceived. There presently is no fundamental agreement on a diagnostic category for this personality disorder. There are aspects of what is called masochism, such as sexual arousal associated with pain, which have not been considered in this study. I feel that the essential nature of the pain in those designated as masochists is low self-esteem and that it develops in a childhood context of inadequate loving nurturance. I strongly believe that low self-esteem evolves from and is maintained by the competitive social milieu and a resultant personal functioning, which is diffusely competitive. The competitive activity is often associated unawarely with cynicism (Bonime, 1989). The gratification of victory substitutes for the gratifications of intimacy and growth, but is relatively brief, and although it produces some self acceptance, it is never enough to overcome the basic low feeling about oneself. Here was Marjorie, a woman who had miserably low self-esteem as a child, as low as being "just a crack in the door." As an adult, as shown in her dream, she felt like a woman full of shit that comes out involuntarily. She struggled to keep from being exposed as such and ached with humiliation or inwardly--and sometimes openly--raged when some distasteful quality or inadequacy showed or threatened to show. This pained person strove to overcome her sense of inadequacy as a person. She overcame it by succeeding in outdoing others according to her private, competitive standards. Her criteria of value were success in evoking signs of approval and sustaining herself while suffering, while "taking it." Her highest value was being able to take it, to suffer intensely without breaking. She was cynical and never sensed for long that she was genuinely regarded as an acceptable human being. She didn't believe in the existence of any genuine caring. She dreamt of an ecstatic evening dining, dancing, and having wonderful sex with "Bill" who she felt was an exceptional man. Later in the dream, she expected the same ecstasy the following evening with him. However, he said to her they couldn't go on because she was cruel. Almost always the prospect of an enjoyable situation "scared" her because it required her to abandon her protective cynicism, which made her a defeatable, exploitable target for the cynicism and competitiveness of others.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Adult↗